Raidng is becoming a Chore

[Twentyone21]

I am an officer within a semi-hardcore guild (11/12 so maybe a little less than that) and I really feel that the fact that raids no longer seem fun is impacting horribly on our progression.

A few problems I've seen develop to cause a chore-like feel about clearing and progression:
1. Less of a community feel about the guild. The guild lately seems to have formed little clicks(small groups) that don't tend to interact.
2. Lack of motivation from players to clear content as well as progress.
3. We clear 11/12 very easily and use our remaining 2-3 raid nights on LK when we can.
4. All of the above, of course, then contribute to lack of attendance. We are in the pitfall of being on a low to medium populated server so recruitment is somewhat lax(especially being the #2 guild who is far far behind #1).

What I'm really looking for help/advice on is how other guilds make raids fun(excluding progressing very quickly) and how they maintain that community feel about the guild as a whole. Outside raid events? Reward strategies?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Keeping the guild anonymous for now. Apologies for the "Tanking" prefix, but I thought this would be the most appropriate forum.

[Trork]

Hmm.... I am in a casual raiding guild, we have 3 10 man groups, and only got 7/12.

Still I consider we do raid alot (monday-thursday) plus the weekend random raids (toc/icc25)

We do still have our fun in vent, we let everyone talk, we trash talk alot actually... untill we get to the boss, then its srs bsns (most of the times).

Besides that, we sometimes also group up a few people to do battlegrounds with, or world pvp... and make some fun fraps out of it.

Guild site / forum might help alot in the interaction between players, many have jobs / school that they have to attend to, and still want to communicate with the guild, thats an awesome solution for that, and might bring ppl closer.

trash talking in vent, talking outside of wow (facebook, guild site/forum), make in game none pve events (BGs)... we have shit loads of fun.

[Miste]

Progression raids are draining. I've found it best when the guild doesn't take itself too seriously.

We use 10-mans to unwind and build our community. We run 3 10-man teams with about 20 of our raiders participating. The other 10 slots are filled with alts. I find 10-mans to be as better place to build that community feeling because the smaller team lets everyone speak and have fun during the raid.

Another good thing to do is use extra chat channels to break your 25-man team into smaller functional teams. It gives people a place to vent without doing it in raid chat. It also builds better teamwork as people feel more open to share their experiences with like minded people. Healers, tanks and dps see fights completely differently from each other. What melee sees as "easy" may not be so easy for a tank or healer who is managing other parts of the fight.

Additionally, what you're describing is the beginning stages of a guild split. Such splits tend to occur more when we approach the end of an expansion. Sometimes you can avert it, sometimes you can't. Until Cata is released (and probably through the first raid tier), guild stability will be very low and people will be looking to form new partnerships to fill their own needs. We saw the same thing in AQ40/Naxx and BT/Sunwell. The best way to insulate yourself is recruiting a few new people who are grateful for your progress and keep pushing forward.

[Bosk]

I think all guilds get periods like this.

We tend to deal with it by shifting around the raid team so people do unfamiliar roles for a couple of nights. Say that druid who normally heals, let him tank for a bit, let the ele shammy practice his chain heal offspec.

We can't normally push progression like that but everyone seems refreshed by the change. You can even go premade to some BGs and steamroller people who aren't coordinated by vent.

In management it is called the Disruption Theory.

[Gehn]

I think all guilds get periods like this.

We tend to deal with it by shifting around the raid team so people do unfamiliar roles for a couple of nights. Say that druid who normally heals, let him tank for a bit, let the ele shammy practice his chain heal offspec.

We can't normally push progression like that but everyone seems refreshed by the change. You can even go premade to some BGs and steamroller people who aren't coordinated by vent.

In management it is called the Disruption Theory.

This is the way we beat the boredom guild. Especially the BG or old dungeon route. We used to hit Alliance cities as well.